December 2018 Newsletter

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Clement Byrd
5 years ago
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1 December 2018 Newsletter November Meeting: There were 19 members present at the November 10 General Meeting held at Darbi s in Pinetop. We welcomed three new members Kevin Gahagan, and Buzz and Wendy Call. We look forward to sharing the trails with you! December Meeting: The next TRACKS General Meeting will be a Christmas brunch potluck! Saturday December 8, starting at 11 a.m. in Lakeside at Jim Snitzer s cabin on the east shore of Rainbow Lake. If your last name begins with A - J bring a main dish K - Q bring a side dish, veggies or salad R - Z bring dessert Please plan your contribution for people as we re expecting guests. Jim will provide Cider and maybe sodas. Feel free to bring champagne or BYOB. Label your utensils and dishes so they don t get lost. Directions (call Jim if you get lost ) Turn south on Niels Hansen Lane (across from the Lakeside Forest Service Office). Go one short block and turn right (west) on Rainbow Lake Lane. Go 0.2 miles and turn left at the first driveway the address is Announcements: EPIC RIDES made a donation of $3600 to TRACKS for our help in making the 23rd annual Tour of the White Mountains a great community event and success. Sincere thanks to all TRACKS members who volunteered, and thanks to the rain fairies who held off the rains until the event was over! Over 600 riders participated. Race results are available on Epic Rides website. Up the Hill Gang Wednesday Hikes: Come and enjoy some fun and exercise! In the Fall and Winter, hikes start at 9 a.m, weather permitting. Details will be in the Calendar section at the end of each TRACKS Newsletter. For more information contact Heather at or steinerhm@aol.com. 1

Show Low Shines Annual Christmas Light Parade. Saturday, December 1 at 6:00 pm. Free! The fun begins along the Deuce of Clubs from Central Avenue to White Mountain Road.

Don t miss Santa! For more information, call 928-532-4124. Pinetop-Lakeside Christmas at Town Hall. Santa + Carols, Cookies, Hot Chocolate, and Ballet! 6-8 PM Friday, November 30.

Wednesday, December 5 th at the Nature Center Meet & Greet 6 pm, Dinner 6:30 Please bring a dish to share: if your last name starts with A-M bring salads and desserts N-Z main dishes, side dishes,

2 Show Low Shines Annual Christmas Light Parade. Saturday, December 1 at 6:00 pm. Free! The fun begins along the Deuce of Clubs from Central Avenue to White Mountain Road. Enjoy the floats with their beautiful light displays depicting this year s theme, Wild West Christmas. Lighting of the community Christmas trees follows at 7:00 pm at Show Low City Hall. Don t miss Santa! For more information, call Pinetop-Lakeside Christmas at Town Hall. Santa + Carols, Cookies, Hot Chocolate, and Ballet! 6-8 PM Friday, November 30. See the Beautiful New Town Hall, 325 White Mtn Blvd. Mountain Audubon Society Holiday Pot Luck Dinner and Meeting. Wednesday, December 5 th at the Nature Center Meet & Greet 6 pm, Dinner 6:30 Please bring a dish to share: if your last name starts with A-M bring salads and desserts N-Z main dishes, side dishes, appetizers Everyone Welcome Bring a Friend Ron Miller, retired BIA Forester and silviculturist, will present the Audubon program. He will tie his talk to the season by showing a fun presentation of searching for conifer Christmas trees throughout the Caribbean. He will also talk about the spruce from the White Mountains that went to Washington. Keeping in Contact with TRACKS Members -- Mailchimp. The TRACKS Board has approved use of an service called Mailchimp which will be used to send the Newsletter and to members. We have reviewed privacy and security policies of this service and believe them to be sound, however, with all Internet activities there is the possibility of data breach. We limit data provided to Mailchimp to your name, address, and area of interest (hiking, biking, etc). You may opt out of this service by notifying Nick (lundaz@cableone.net or ). If you opt out you will not receive TRACKS s but you can notify Nick that you want the Newsletter by mail. Report Trail Problems. If you notice a minor problem, fix it (pick up the trash)! If you notice a major problem, notify Jim Snitzer (jim@snitzer.org, ) or go to the TRACKS website, trackswhitemountains.org, click on CONTACT and send an describing the problem. Include the code of the nearest white trail marker diamond to help us locate the problem. 2

3 TRACKS T-shirts: We have a few L & XL long-sleeve T-shirts left! For a $20 donation to TRACKS you can get one! The shirts are forest green with the TRACKS logo on front and symbols of mountain biking, horseback riding, and hiking on the back. Contact Lynn Krigbaum for purchase info and payment. (gemmakrigbaum@yahoo.com or call ). Another way to support TRACKS: If you order things from Amazon, try using If you do, Amazon will make a small donation to TRACKS. It costs you nothing. You can use your regular Amazon user name and password and simply search for TRACKS Inc located in Lakeside Arizona as the non-profit organization to get the donation. Thanks. Report Volunteer Hours: Please be sure, by the end of December, to report your volunteer hours during 2018 to Nick for the TRACKS annual report (lundaz@cableone.net or ). Include ANY volunteering you do for TRACKS or otherwise, and include travel time in the hours. Remember to include time you spent on boards, commissions, significant committees, and the names of those organizations. Keep up the good work! TRACKS at Trunk-Or-Treat (by Arlene). For a safe Halloween celebration, this year there were 18 Trunks open to the public. Over 2,000 people came to collect goodies and join in the fun at Mountain Meadows. Thanks to Kay Alderton and Arlene Nelson, TRACKS once again set up a trunk. The back of Kay s Jeep was decorated with bats and bones and skeletons, surrounded by flashing lights. A creepy sick-looking vulture hovered over the remains of a dead tree draped in skulls, crawling with spiders and covered with spiderwebs. Twas scary for sure, but the kids were beautiful, even though they were masked by costumes of all shapes and sizes. Some of the babies and even dogs wore costumes. There were raffle prizes and 9 costume prizes. There was pumpkin carving and decorating and a slide for the kids. A giant screen was set up on the ballfield showing Transylvania movies for all to enjoy, and then, later, the cold came creeping in. Shivering little ones donning daddy s jackets soon called it a night. It was time to return to their warm dens with loads of candy and happy memories of Halloween. Environmental News. Roundup, the brand name for glyphosate, is the most commonly used herbicide. Glyphosate kills weeds but also kills soybeans, corn, and other food crops unless they are genetically modified (GMO) to survive. Evidence is mounting that the glyphosate in genetically modified foods increases risk of a variety of health problems. For example, California lists glyphosate as a cancer causing chemical. Monsanto challenged this but the courts ruled that the state had a right to refer to the work of scientific bodies and that the people had a right to know of those opinions. More than 8,000 lawsuits have now been filed against Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) for health problems allegedly caused by glyphosate. Based on this, it seems prudent to select non-gmo food products when available. 3

Rick Young & Tim Strand Visit the Chiricahua Mountains (by Rick) On November 3-5, Strand and I went on an adventure to explore Chiricahua National Monument, part of the National Park System located

For shelter, we took my 15-year old-tent (pierced on a prior camping trip when it was blown into a tree). We set up camp under a beautiful canopy of trees.

We had to start the truck and run the heater to thaw out. Next morning, we headed out for the Big Hike, 6-7 miles long.

4 Rick Young & Tim Strand Visit the Chiricahua Mountains (by Rick) On November 3-5, Strand and I went on an adventure to explore Chiricahua National Monument, part of the National Park System located about 2 hours east of Tucson. I had no idea what was in store but was excited to be on the journey. For shelter, we took my 15-year old-tent (pierced on a prior camping trip when it was blown into a tree). We set up camp under a beautiful canopy of trees. We were lucky to obtain the last campsite available on Saturday night but boy was it cold! For some reason, campfires were not permitted, so we both had nearly-frozen feet by morning. We had to start the truck and run the heater to thaw out. Next morning, we headed out for the Big Hike, 6-7 miles long. Each day at 9 am the park van leaves the campground at 5400 feet and makes the 8-mile climb up beautiful Bonita Canyon to the top of the trails at about 7000 feet. The trails are a magnificent display of the tremendous work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the great depression. Some of the trail s countless rock retaining walls are more than 50 feet long and more than 30 feet high. After leaving the van, there are four main trails -- a 1-mile trail to the fire lookout at 7300 feet and three mostly downhill trails, 3, 4, and 6 miles long, returning to the Ranger Station and Campground. We were repeatedly amazed by long range views, pinnacles, hoodoos, balancing rocks, and deep canyons, and, by the end of the hike, we were ready to lie down on a rock and rest! We definitely recommend this island of beauty in the high desert! If you ve had interesting outdoor experiences we would love to share them in the Newsletter. your story to timstrand777@gmail.com. Send along photos if you have some. 4

5 We recently lost two of TRACKS very special people. Ruth Nelson was one of the original members of TRACKS. She was very active and continued to down-hill ski into her 80 s. On Wednesday October 24 she went to the doctor to get results of a PET scan and received news that her cancer had spread to her entire body. Her daughter Sue had come that day to stay with her. Two days later Ruth was having severe pain. Sue called Hospice and they gave her medication that helped. At 8:30 pm on October 26 she passed away. A few weeks ago, Nick and Peggy Lund visited Ruth in the hospital. At that time, she said I have lived a wonderful life, full of good people and travel, and have always enjoyed being in TRACKS, but if it is time for me to go, then sayonara. Liz Wise was an outdoor enthusiast s role model. She worked extensively on TRACKS trails well into her 80 s. She served on the board and was the Trail Boss for many years. Recently, she was in Haven after a fall at home. Liz was one of the first people Nick and Peggy Lund met in TRACKS 14 years ago. When they visited her recently, she was in good spirits but said, in true Liz fashion, I m just too damned old. She was certainly one of the best TRACKS Board Members. She wanted to know the pros and cons of each issue thoroughly, and always considered the long-term effects of our decisions. As Trail Boss, she met with the U.S. Forest Service to obtain approvals for proposed work, maintained the trail tools, pin flagged new trail routes, and oversaw the trail crew at work. She passed away on October 28. Many friends and family members met at the White Mountain Nature Center on November 17 to remember Liz and celebrate her life. Memorial donations can be made to The Liz Wise Fund. Mail checks with that designation to the White Mountain Nature Center, P.O. Box 581, Pinetop, AZ Liz s death is a great loss to her family, to the community, and to TRACKS. In large part because of her death, there will be no more trail work til next spring, when a new trail crew leader will be needed. This is an important job and a lot of work. Liz Wise did an outstanding job for many years and now TRACKS must move on without her. Contact Jim to discuss volunteering for this very important position (jim@snitzer.org or ). 5

6 TRACKS December 2018 Calendar of Events Date Event Meeting Place/Info November 30, Friday Pinetop-Lakeside Christmas Tree Lighting 6 PM Jack Barker Park, across from library December 1, Saturday Show Low Shines Christmas Lights Parade 6 PM Deuce of Clubs from Central Avenue to White December 1, Saturday Show Low Christmas Tree Lighting December 5, Wednesday Up-The-Hill Gang Hike December 5, Wednesday Annual White Mountain Audubon Holiday Pot Luck Dinner & Meeting Mountain Road 7 PM Show Low City Hall 9 AM Fool-Hollow Lake trails, meet at Show Low Park parking lot off Hwy 260, $7/car 6 PM Nature Center. Ron Miller on Christmas Trees + December 6, Thursday TRACKS Board Meeting 1 PM at the Nature Center, 425 S Woodland Rd, Lakeside. TRACKS members welcome December 8, Saturday TRACKS General Meeting -- Christmas Brunch Potluck at Jim Snitzer s cabin 11 AM 2401 Rainbow Lake Lane. See the middle of page 1 of the Newsletter for directions or call Mondays No Trail Work for now To add your name to the Trail Crew list, contact Nick at lundaz@cableone.net Wednesdays for the rest of the month December 25, Tuesday Up the Hill Gang Hikes Wednesday mornings, weather permitting. Contact: Heather Steiner for more information at or steinerhm@aol.com Happy 9:00 AM -A more specific schedule will be back in effect starting in May. Holidays 6

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8 928 S. Woodland Road Lakeside, AZ

October 2017 Newsletter

October 2017 Newsletter September TRACKS Meeting: There were about 52 people in attendance at the final General meeting and Potluck of the season held at Woodland Lake Park. New members, Kim and Ian Colby,